What has taken Falmouth’s senior class four years to try and accomplish, St. Dominic Academy’s freshmen class did in their first try last year.
That goal: Win a state championship.
The Yatchsmen’s four-year players already know three years of heartbreak — once in the state final to Lewiston two years ago, and twice to rival Scarborough in regional finals. They got past the Red Storm in this year’s South regional final, but now must get past the undefeated Saints — looking for their second consecutive state title — to win that elusive state championship.
“It means everything,” Falmouth coach Rob Carrier said. “They’ve been to the regional final every year, they’ve seen the struggles when we lose, and they’ve seen the highs when we win it. To get back to the states, they know it’s not a guarantee, so they appreciate it. The group of seniors, they set out to reach the state final this year.”
The Yachtsmen were the top-seeded team in the South this year after going 14-4 during the regular season. That slate included a 6-0 loss to St. Dom’s and a 3-2 loss to Scarborough in one of the two regular-season matchups between the teams.
“Falmouth’s a good team,” St. Dom’s coach Paul Gosselin said. “I watched them play a couple times, we got to play them a couple weeks ago, and they got quick, little, fast team. They do well. They have to. They ended up in first place, and they’re in the finals. That probably says a lot.”
The Yachtsmen have made it to the state final with a 9-0 rout of York/Traip in the regional semifinals and a 3-1 rubber-match win over Scarborough in the regional final.
“It took a lot of effort,” Carrier said. “It was just going to come down to if we were going to put in that extra effort to win the game, and I think the third period really showed the leadership that our seniors have because I felt that was our best period of the game.”
Falmouth will have to play its best game of the season on Saturday if the Yachtsmen are to hand the Saints their first defeat.
“I know St. Dom’s is undefeated and they beat us pretty handily earlier in the year, so it’s not like it’s a guarantee that we’re going to win,” Carrier said. “Right now we’re just going to focus in on executing our systems as best we can and just give it our best effort.”
Falmouth and St. Dom’s didn’t face each other last year, so earlier this season was the first time Carrier got to see the Saints’ sensational sophomore class in person. He said the Saints were faster than he anticipated.
“Having already seen that speed, we’ll make a handful of adjustments to try and not necessarily neutralize them, but to kind of be ready for it,” Carrier said.
The Falmouth coach pinpointed sophomore center Kristina Cornelio as one of the players his team will have to keep an eye on. Carrier said Cornelio “lit” his team up during the regular season. Also, the Saints have a trio of two-way defenders (Izzy Frenette, Emma Theriault and Katya Fons) that can beat the Yachtsmen at both ends.
Falmouth’s own defense will have to play one of its best games against a St. Dom’s offense that has averaged almost eight goals per game. That includes senior goalie Ally Hurdman.
“She’s probably going to have to play her best game of her career,” Carrier said.
Hurdman was in net two years ago when Falmouth lost to Lewiston, and Carrier said his senior netminder would like to make up for that game.
“I think they’ve got a senior goalie that’s pretty good, so we’ll have to get on her quick,” Gosselin said.
The Yachtsmen’s answer on offense might not come from the usual suspects, according to Carrier.
“Probably for us it’s going to be our secondary scorers,” Carrier said. “Evie Clement’s been in the paper a lot for what she’s done, Devon Sarazin as well. So it’s going to come down to the Carmichael sisters (Stone and Reade) on offense, Abi Lebel as well. I think that those secondary scorers, if we’re going to have a chance to win, they’re going to have to really contribute offensively in the game.”
For St. Dom’s, the answer is simple, said Gosselin.
“I think just continue to play our game,” he said. “We don’t really focus a lot on the other team, we focus on ourselves. We put a lot of emphasis on making sure that they play the way we want them to play, and play their game, and if that happens good things usually happen. It’s succeeded so far, so I don’t think we’ll change much.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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